Undercover Reporter

The petite blonde in white pants and red top looked like a helpless motorist, standing beside her sport utility vehicle, keys locked inside. She called a locksmith on her mobile phone and received a quote of $50 to unlock her SUV.

OLLU broadcast major Courtney Minten Willey

A young man in jeans and a green shirt arrived and offered a new price. The blond responded with incredulity: “$120?” The locksmith lowered his price to $65. An investigative reporter swooped in, accompanied by a TV camera, and demanded an explanation. When the locksmith failed to offer one, the reporter identified himself and said, “You’ve been busted.”

Viewer tips in the fall prompted Collister to investigate fraudulent locksmith companies. Because he is well-recognized, he asked Willey to pose as a locked out motorist. “We had her call some companies on the Internet that claim they unlock cars at cheap prices,” Collister says. “We rolled cameras and caught companies trying to rip her off. She was great.“

Willey also impressed by digging through court files, searching records and going undercover on other assignments. “She was very sharp,” Collister says. “A fast learner.”

She’s had to be. Willey is the first in her family to attend college. A 2008 graduate of Smithson Valley High School, Willey has stumbled at times through the complexities of higher education. She started at UTSA, struggled academically, transferred to Northwest Vista College, then enrolled at OLLU. Along the way, she took classes she didn’t need to take and spent money she didn’t need to spend.

WOAI-TV Investigative Reporter Brian Collister

“I wasted money and time because I didn’t have direction,” Willey says. “As a first generation student, I didn’t have anybody’s steps to follow. I had to learn a lot on my own. It’s been an adventure, just figuring it out.”

The first generation experience is challenging. According to a College Board analysis in 2008, only 44.9 percent of first generation students graduate from a four-year college within six years. USA Today reported in 2010 that 89 percent of low-income first-generation students leave college without a degree within six years. The methods and outcomes of such studies may vary, but everyone agrees: Second and third generation students are more likely to graduate than their first generation peers.

OLLU attracts more first-generation students than most schools. The “first gen” designation fit 55 percent of freshman last fall. Willey has an older sister, an older brother, a younger sibling and two stepbrothers. None of them attended college. Her parents do not have diplomas. So who got her to think about a higher education?

“There wasn’t a specific person,” she says. “I’d say the idea evolved. I think for me it was hit or miss. Graduate from high school, stay in Spring Branch and work at a restaurant for minimum wage? Take a chance on some rich guy sweeping me off my feet? No thanks. Or as cliche as it sounds, go to a university, gain my independence, have a shot at my dream to become anything I so desired and be able to take care of myself. I chose the latter.”

National statistics suggest Willey won’t succeed at OLLU, but she’s on track to graduate next year. And then?

“I would like to be a reporter,” she says. “Hopefully on CNN or at a local station.”

A class at Northwest Vista piqued her interest in broadcast journalism. On the recommendation of a professor, she came to OLLU and began taking journalism courses. “I love it,” she says. Willey wrote for The Lake Front, the campus newspaper, worked for Lake Front TV, and landed an internship with WOAI-TV.

A whirlwind of adventure began. With a hidden camera in her purse, Willey went undercover to a flea market to investigate the sale of illegal diabetes strips. She investigated a bogus charity that claimed to help the homeless. And she accompanied Collister on a riveting assignment: Federal agents, with guns drawn, emerged from cars to arrest state employees in connection with medicaid fraud. “It was like something out of the movies,” she says.

Newlyweds Cody and Courtney Willey

Weeks after the federal bust, Courtney married her boyfriend from high school, Cody Willey, who works in South Texas oil fields. “I’m proud of her,” Cody says. “Her first year at UTSA she didn’t know what she wanted to do.”

Courtney nods and smiles. “Once I figured out what I wanted to do, it was ‘go,’” she says. “When I have kids one day, I can help them and tell them what to do about college. I love it here.”